Hike #731; Newark to Summit

 Hike #731; Newark to Summit

10/15/13 Newark to Summit with Al MacLennan, Jack Lowry, Susie Duncan, Dan Lurie, Sue Olivar, Craig Nunn, Carla ?, Daniel MacMahan, Liam "Tubby" ?, Nila ?, Susan ?.

Hiking through Newark!

Our next hike would be one of those odd days off in the week, for election day. I always see this as another opportunity to do a hike. This time, I figured we'd do Newark to Summit. We could easily use a train between the two, and cover some stuff I'd been wanting to cover.

First of all, I want to hike all the rail mileage in the state. The former Lehigh Valley Railroad was one of them I'd not traced yet, but in this part of the state there was no way to walk it because it is far too busy. I'd have to walk the closest parallel streets. The other opportunity I saw was to try to hike the abandoned Rahway Valley Railroad. This line still had rails in at some points I'd seen, and it was rather overgrown. With the weeds dying off for the year, it was a good time to try to power through.

We met in Summit, and Al and I parked in a lot he knew of up town. He knew of a good spot. I was in a big hurry because it was getting late to take the train. We were having trouble with the pay meters in the lot. Al's card wasn't taking, so I paid for his and mine with my card. Unfortunately, I dropped my Weird NJ t shirt Mark Moran had just given me next to the pay site because I was in such a hurry to get to the station.

We walked down to the station where we met up with Dan MacMahon and Liam, or "Tub Slut" as I was introduced to him. We simply called him "Tubby".

We boarded the train, and I'm not sure if Susan met us on the train or in the city. Dan and Sue met up with us at the train too, and rode with us there. Dan made the comment as we passed through East Orange "Ah East Orange...they rob cell phones here....and kidneys". Not thinking before asking, I asked "Which one is worth more?". Quick humored Dan replied "In my case? The cell phone.". I laughed pretty hard.

As we rode, Jack called me up and let me know he and Susie were joining up. Someone made a comment that they hoped Jack brought his guitar. Well, Dan M and Tubby knew Jack and Susie already from their Hashing group, and when they heard "guitar", they knew it must be the same guy. It's funny how worlds collide like this sometimes.

They joined us at another station, I forget which, and Carla met us in Newark where we got off. Craig Nunn met us somewhere along the way as well. Probably on the train or something.

I think we started at Newark Broad Street Station. For the entire start of the hike, I went by Craig's recommendation for where to go. I pointed out a few of the Lenape Trail blazes which we passed, but we didn't follow that route this time.

I honestly don't remember the route we followed, but it was interesting and informative because Craig knows his stuff so well. We passed a former carriage house that used to be preserved, went by Penn Station where we were joined by one more, but I forget who it was at this point, and Carla and Craig both talked about an old Jersey Central Railroad terminal that still stands, thought the tracks to it have long since gone.

We also passed the front of what I think they said was a church, but the rest of it had burned down. Only the front and it's columns still stood. We then moved on to cross Lincoln Park I think it was where the home of David Burnet, first President of the Republic of Texas once stood. We kept moving on from here to the south along back streets that Craig recommended and got somewhat close to the railroad line. I think we went down Rt 27 to Empire Street, then entered Weequahic Park, which was quite beautiful. This was one of the famous Olmsted Brothers Parks Craig explained. Weequahic is a Lenape word that means "At the cove", and the lake is the largest in Essex County.

The pathway of this lovely park was some sort of redish base, like maybe a shale was used to make it. We continued along the north side, which although was close to roads and the railroad, it had a secluded feel about it. Out the other side of the park, we took I think a right to North Broad Street, then left to Hollywood Ave. This road closely paralleled the tracks.

We continued from here to Conant Street where directly across was a path into Elizabeth River Park. It too closely paralleled the tracks. We hung a slight left as to the right I recall it got a little overgrown, and I thought we might find a bridge over the creek further to the south. We did not, and so we followed the path along the river back toward the tracks. It started getting somewhat overgrown, but it was a very nice section of natural surface foot path. It kept pushing through the ever thickening weeds until we got to the railroad bridge over the river. There was no other way across.

The only quick way of doing this was to climb up to the very active tracks, dash across the trestle, and make our way down on the other side. I did just that, dashed across the bridge and looked for a path down on the other side. Certainly with no bridge and no way across, someone else must have done this before, right? After all, there was park land on the other side!

Wrong! There was NOTHING on the other side, just impenetrable thick weeds! I hurried along because eventually I would have to find something. I could already see Union Station's platform in the distance ahead. A tenth of a mile beyond the bridge, there were steps down to the right, to some fenced off building and to a business parking lot. I looked back and saw everyone else was crossing the bridge. I think Al probably coaxed them into just doing it. He showed up at the steps smiling and laughing, undoubtedly having had the same rush from it that I got. I think Jack, Susie, Tubby and Dan were into it, but the rest of the group seemed as thought they'd have preferred something safer for the sake of their own nerves.

We went around the business through the parking lot, then emerged on Rt 82. We passed beneath the tracks, then went right onto a concrete path that led to the station platform. It was here that we were joined by Mila, who wasn't able to catch us earlier. I think Susan cut out here? I forget. From this point, Jack, Susie, Craig, Dan, Sue, Al, Dan, Tubby, Mila, and I continued on. We had a little break in the station area which sold some food, and then headed out of the lot to Green Lane. The station here at Union was very very new, but made with the look of older historic stations. It had an overhead thing with a train on it as we left. I always like when towns embrace their railroad history.

At the end of Green Lane, we took a path through a line of trees directly through Bill Kolb Park, a small park, and then followed a back street to Edgewood Parkway to Magie Ave. We stayed on this road all the way to Roselle Park train station. Along the way, there was some eatery that made a Latin food, not Mexican but I forget which, and I saw something for empanadas and we stopped.

The place seemed kind of oddly situated, in a regularly looking house, on a residential street. Kind of odd. I ordered one of the empanadas, and it was the best I had ever had! They used a mix of egg, cheese, and meats in a blend that blew me away. Prior to this, the best empanadas I'd had were in Perth Amboy, the first ones I'd ever tried. These were so much better, but almost completely different in shape, and much more full of stuff.

We had a nice break here for a while, and Craig opted to cut off early to catch the next train at Roselle Park.

We soon all left, and saw Craig up on the platform as we walked by.

We crossed the road from here, cut a corner by heading through a parking lot, and went right on Webster Ave. The first lot along the way had a ton of toilets sat along the back of the lot! We continued down the road to Locust Street, went right under the tracks, then left on Wester Street West.

Some people may find it a curiosity that these streets have the same name, but it requires turning onto another street before moving on to the next section. The reason for this strange mis-alignments is the railroad and how it was upgraded over the years. Originally, when the Lehigh Valley Railroad was built through this area, it passed along over the roads at grade. The problem with this was as the area grew, and both traffic on the railroads and roads increased, so did the number of accidents. The right of way of these rail lines through more urban areas had to be raised in order to have underpasses rather than grade crossings, and so roads like Webster Ave had to be re-aligned with this configuration.

We continued on Webster to Roselle Park High School. Just south of us was the junction with the former Rahway Valley Railroad, which would be our next route.

An apartment complex was situated to the south of the road, but to the north I could see the right of way in a somewhat narrow cut heading parallel with the ball fields of the school. We got through the fence and followed a pathway parallel with the cut, then went slightly left, directly on the old rail bed beside their quarter mile running track.

From Colfax Ave we had to walk some side streets and through residential and industrial areas parallel. We could see rails still in place in the roads at times, and at Market Street was the connection between Rahway Valley Railroad and the CNJ line. We didn't follow this one this time,  instead continuing to the north on Market. The line was behind businesses to the right, and inaccessible.

When we got to the Garden State Parkway underpass, I thought maybe I could reach the rail bed by climbing up to the highway, then back down to the right of way. I tried, and I could see the culvert, but it was insanely overgrown on the way to reach it, and I believe there were chain link fences. A couple of the group came up to try to follow me, but we all head to head back down and go along Market Street.

When we got to Passaic Ave, we were able to turn right and reach the old tracks again. Rails were still in place, but badly overgrown in a lot of spots. They took us out past the A&P and across Kenilworth Blvd. An access road, which became just a dirt lane after a bit followed on or parallel to the tracks, which were often covered over completely with dirt. They continued along the back of some corperate yard area, and then curved to the north a bit parallel with Galloping Hill Golf Course. They were badly overgrown in this section above the golf course, but we bullied through anyway. Mila lost her jacket in there and went back to get it, and amazingly found it.

We soon reached and crossed the East Coast Greenway Trail, which I'd done before with my buddy Kyle, then turned left on it up to Michigan Ave. The rail bed was nearly impassable with weeds so we just went up to the road to walk parallel.

We soon reached our next problem: Rt 22. This incredibly busy section was separated with service stations and stuff in the center, but fast moving three lanes of traffic on each side. I knew we could dash across if we went to a nearby intersection. It was too far to go to the nearest traffic light. Carla and Nila didn't want to cross, so we spent a while trying to figure it out.

Tubby took the interesting option: There was a tunnel beneath the highway for a stream, and he figured we could get through. I liked the idea, so we used my head lamp and headed that way. We got a ways in, and I was helpign Carla through the deepening water when she said she couldn't handle this. I escorted her back out, but Tubby decided to keep trying to get through. I left him with the head lamp and he was off.

I soon opted to dash across the road, as most of the others decided to do. Dan and Sue decided to try to walk to the next traffic light and try to get a cab back. Carla and Nila flagged down a passing driver to take them across. Unfortunately, they had him drop them off in the median! They had to get across another three lanes! Amazingly, they found another driver to take them this distance as well!

The rest of us went searching for the next bit of rail line in a care sales place. There was a junction in this area where a spur line went northeast for a bit, and then ended as I understand. We tried following the main line to the left, but it was blocked by a fence that we couldn't get over. We then tried following the spur line thinking that if we could get through, then we could make our way through to the west again. No luck there either. After a while of searching, we headed back out to Rt 22. During this whole time, we couldn't find Tubby. As it turns out, he ended up a ways away from Rt 22, in an area of heavy security and behind a chain link fence! He had to somehow make his way out from under the fence. The tunnel had gotten narrower and he was covered in disgusting mud. He certainly had an adventure, but was alright and soon caught up with us.

Those of us remaining headed west on 22 briefly, then went right on Springfield Street after cutting across the Mandee's parking lot. We followed the road to the north, which eventually crossed over the tracks. We then turned left parallel to them on Ridge Drive, which had filled over a portion of it.

At the end of Ridge Drive, we cut straight into the woods on the overgrown railroad tracks. This was an awesome section. There was a heavy canopy and so the only weeds through the tracks we had to deal with were saplings coming through. As we walked, I started moving off of the tracks to the south a bit because we were getting close to some homes. Some guy came out to tell us we were trespassing (actually, this was all public land), and I told him that it was not private property. He told me it was state land, to which I replied "I work for the state!". He pointed at Tubby and said he didn't have a state uniform, at which point I said that he wasn't, I was leading a hike through a non profit group that I run. He shut up quick and just glared at me. I told him we're just checking out the condition of the old rail line, we're passing through and that he wouldn't see us again. No words from him, we just continued on.

We cut back over to the tracks when we could see less development, and soon reached an awesome through style truss railroad trestle over the Rahway River. Jack helped some of the others across the ties, and then we headed up to cross Meisel Ave. We turned left, then right through Meisel Ave Park, along their gravel access road that paralleled the rail line. At the north end of the fields, a foot bridge over a brook was built right next to the old railroad bridge over the same.

The trail took us out a back street that took us to Mountain Ave. The railroad bed was in poor shape at this point, so we didn't bother trying to follow it any more. When we reached the road, I think it was this one anyway, we were surprised to come out and immediately see Dan and Sue walking by us! They apparently tried to get a cab and things didn't go right, and then ended up on the same street by the former rail crossing! So strange!

We continued north on Henshaw Ave, which then led to a square park called Henwhaw Ave Park (imagine that), and we continued on the same road beyond.

We turned right on Baltrusol Way at the end of the road, and then soon came to where the tracks crossed. The rails were again still visible, but we opted not to try to follow them because it was going to be dark soon. They were also overgrown, plus I'd followed most of this section before on a previous hike. It looped around and we'd be back on it anyway. We passed under Rt 78 and turned left, steeply up Stonehill Road. By this time in the hike, this hill really sucked. We came down hill and toward Briant Park, passing the "phantom bridge" where the Rahway Valley RR used to cross the road. I almost wanted to go left to follow it for a shortcut, but it was getting dark.

I had to try to remember how we got through on my previous hikes. Fortunately, Dan MacMahon lives in Summit and he knew the way better than I did. I remembered how to get in initially though, taking Harvard Street to Shunpike Road, then cutting left and through the Knights of Columbus lot to get onto the path into Hidden Valley Park below the shooting range.

The path took us up and across the Rahway Valley RR tracks. I had not followed the section from here east to Summit yet, and I had no inclination to even try in the dark. It was overgrown and didn't look attractive to me at all anyway. This time, we'd take the trail as I'd taken it before.

Where I usually turned off to head toward Watchung Reservation, we crossed over the washed out extension of Michigan Avenue. This took us right out on the residential part of the road, and Dan M lived right there. How convenient! He was able to give Carla and Nila a ride back from here. I think maybe Tubby went too. I don't recall. When we got into Summit, Jack, Susie, Dan, and Sue cut out to get back to the station I think. Al and I headed back to the parking area we were in only to find that we'd gotten parking tickets despite the fact that we'd payed for the spots. What a drag!

However, on a happier note, I was amazed to find my Weird NJ tee shirt still right where I had dropped it so many hours earlier! I'd not had a chance to even wear it yet, so I was glad not to have lost it! Despite anything negative that happens, there's always something positive to focus on.